London: A simple once-a-day jab could be a lifeline for many diabetes patients, which will not only help control their condition but also fight obesity.
The 1.90 pounds-a-day breakthrough treatment is far cheaper than using other similar drugs and could save the NHS at least 70 million pounds over the next five years, the Daily Express reported.
Doctors can prescribe Lyxumia to patients following approval by the European Medicines Agency.
They have hailed the treatment as a major new tool in the arsenal to tackle the growing problem of Type 2 diabetes.
It works in tandem with insulin to regulate glucose levels in the body in patients who cannot keep this controlled with insulin alone.
Professor Anthony Barnett, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Birmingham, warned: "Eventually this disease is going to bankrupt the NHS if we don`t do something about it."
By getting blood glucose under control "we can actually help patients dramatically reduce the risk of long-term horrendous complications," he said.
Trials have shown that around 100,000 patients treated with insulin alone have glucose levels way over target.
A third of those could be helped with Lyxumia, which works by specifically reducing after-meal glucose, as well as complementing the reduction in before-meal levels from the insulin.
It has an added benefit of helping patients lose weight by preventing the body from storing glucose in fat.
ANI
